Learn Like a Pirate: Empower Your Students to Collaborate, Lead, and Succeed Paperback – March 9, 2015

Learn Like a Pirate is a handbook for the student-led classroom, geared toward elementary and middle school teachers. Teachers often complain that our students don't take ownership and responsibility in their learning; however, we often don't trust the kids to help run the classroom. For those that want to teach our kids these important 21st century skills, Learn Like a Pirate does the job by giving you ideas, tips, and strategies for implementing it. Most importantly, the book is NOT overwhelming... you are not bombarded with information overload. You can take his ideas and build on them. He is also very accessible and is building a community of teachers committed to a student-led classroom on Twitter and Facebook. Some of the ideas I can't wait to use:1) Give Me 5 for kids - he allows students to 'interrupt' when it is important to do so (to ask questions of other students, student-led transitions, or to explain how to do something).2) Student-led transitions3) 21st century learning report cards4) Passion Time (AKA Genius Hour, etc)5) Responsibility Partners6) Eportfolios for student reflectionI definitely recommend this book and have a great 2015-2016 school year!

For those educators who believe in collaborative learning and empowering students, this book not only reinforces your beliefs, but it also gives fresh insights and ideas to try in your classroom. For educators who are on the fence about trying more collaborative learning strategies, I strongly encourage you to read Paul's book. From the first few pages, the reader is hooked, as if a PIRATE has hooked a fish.One of the things I enjoy the most about the book is that I do not recall one time where the focus of a single paragraph was on Paul's students' standardized test scores. I am an educator, and I am a "data-nerd." I know there is a place for some of the data we are required to track. It is refreshing, though, to read a book that is literally all about the students and strategies a teacher uses to make the classroom about the students. This book shows educators that the critical content of state standards can be addressed without students sitting in rows all facing the board. The students we teach are growing up in a social world; with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Our methods must change some to address the changes that are taking place in our world.The ideas and insights in this book are relevant. The comments and anecdotes are from the teacher, his students, or his students' parents. You can tell that Mr. Solarz truly believes in what he teaches. I encourage all educators (and even non educators) to pick the book up and give it a try. Even if a full day of student's leading a classroom isn't "your thing", I know everyone can at least pull some ideas out of this book to try in their classroom to give students some say in how they learn. It's most definitely a book for all!

I love, love, LOVE this book! I've followed @paulsolarz on Twitter for some time and am truly a sponge for all the collaborative classroom ideas that he shares with us. This book is brilliant! He takes us into his classroom, sharing what works, sharing notes from parents and students, and QR codes on pages that take you directly to his blog posts where you can see his classroom in action first hand. In this book you'll gain ideas for setting up a student-led classroom with a plethora of resources. Paul shares how he makes it happen on a budget- I loved his Shared Reading idea using his kindle, his classroom meeting agenda, how he teaches empathy, how he uses responsibility partners, give me 5s, sets up behavior for success, how he uses portfolios to show evidence of growth, how routines/rituals and classroom jobs help establish a culture. I loved the input on competitive games, project based learning and found it refreshing to learn how Paul has infused great leaders like Kylene Beers' Signposts for close reading and Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.I could go on and on! I bought 4 books and gave them to friends to read as soon as I finished it. Curious as to what REARJMCL is all about? Read the book to find out! Super great stuff!

Good ideas here as well as many examples of how it works in the author's elementary school classroom. I am skeptical this will work with middle school students, who typically have a 42 minute period before they move on to the next class. I will revisit my review after I try some of the strategies in my classroom.Update- January 2015- I moved my rating from 3 stars to 4 stars. The 21st century skills section has been particularly helpful to me in focusing on specific skills students will need in the future. The way the material is presented is user friendly and seems doable. It has helped my students become more aware of what skills they are using and what skills they need to accomplish the task at hand. These identification of these skills have transferred into other classes, which is great! I have recommended this book to several colleagues.Paul- thank you for opening up your classroom and sharing what you do!

Learn Like A Pirate is a PERFECT GIFT- a treasure for new and veteran teachers! The best way to learn and improve teaching practice is to watch and learn from great educators. However, teachers never get a chance to do that until NOW! Paul Solarz is a master teacher that opens up his classroom for everyone to see what happens. QR codes/links take you on a virtual field trip to his class where students are empowered to be leaders, are highly engaged in passion projects, and document their work in ePortfolios for a world audience. You'll hear straight from his students how they're learning and why the classroom culture they've built is so engaging. Links allow you to see their projects and interactions. Learn Like A Pirate is also great for administrators to use for examples of best practices. There's no need to talk when you can just watch! Paul's passion for teaching young people 21st-century skills is indisputable! Start reading, and you won't be able to put it down! Every page will captivate and motivate!

Great book, that teaches you how to empower your students! Plus the author provides additional resources for teachers, and he makes himself available on Twitter! Join the chat!

This book is literally life changing! Without doubt the best teaching book I have ever read. Every teacher should read it. It's beyond inspirational. I can't wait to implement all of this in my classroom in September. Don't think twice, just read it.

Inspiring, practical, with great classroom examples.

Good read

I think this is a great book to remind you of good practice as well as having some new ideas you can implement to develop more student leadership and responsibility.